Australian authorities are cracking down on the industry after a body modification “expert” was charged with female genital mutilation after carrying out a procedure.

Brendan Russell was arrested at his home in New South Wales and charged with the crime after a woman allegedly underwent a botched labia reduction.

The procedure – normally carried out by a surgeon – involves cutting away the folds of skin around the vagina.

In the wake of the incident, Brad Hazzard, the health minister for the region, branded the industry “the worst barbarism imaginable”.

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BEFORE: Ethan Bramble before (left) most of the procedures on his body done

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ADDICTIVE: Ethan is such a fan of the procedures nearly every inch of his body is covered

“To see a syringe come into your eye and enter your eyeball”

Ethan Bramble

He said: “This so-called body modification is just plain wacko and can lead to permanent maiming.

“My view is these people are ruthlessly opportunistic. This is up there with the worst barbarism imaginable.”

But fans of extreme body modification have jumped to the defence of the industry in the wake of his comments.

Ethan Bramble, who calls himself the “world’s most modified youth”, says he has had more than 40 procedures and has roughly 150 tattoos covering his body.

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FEARS: Ethan said rules sometimes have to be broken to achieve the desired look

The 21-year-old, who underwent his first procedure when he was just 11, has had some of the most extreme operations to change his appearance.

This includes his tongue split like a snake, the top of his lip split and stretched, his eyeballs tattooed and even his bellybutton removed.

Talking about getting his eyes tattooed, he said: “The end product is 100% worth the torment, if you’re committed to it.

“To see a syringe come into your eye and enter your eyeball. It doesn’t hurt, because there’s no pain receptors so it’s a really surreal feeling.

“You have one person holding your eyelids open and it’s up to you to stare at the wall at a certain spot. It’s so stressful because if you move your eyeball when there’s a syringe in there, you’ll go blind. So that’s definitely a really sketchy one.”

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He said he is concerned about tough rules possibly being brought in to regulate the industry, saying rules have to be “broken” to take body modification to the extreme.

He added: “Some mod artists still use [anaesthesia] and stuff which is illegal but when you think about a lot of my work – I’ve had ears partially cut off, my tongue cut in half, my bellybutton done, stuff shoved in my skin. Getting it done without any kind of local anaesthetic is borderline impossible.

“It’s definitely going to f*** with the modification industry a little bit. Since all of this has come to light, there’s going to be a lot more regulation and rules brought in – but a lot of rules have to get broken to do these sort of things.

“It’s a massive grey area, modification, because it hasn’t been around or in the light for so long. It’s a really new thing.”